Wilson, Parks Box Up Frustration With ‘Crate’

Almost 30 years after their aborted “Smile” collaboration, Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson has reunited with acclaimed songwriter-producer Van Dyke Parks for a new album, “Orange Crate Art,” due for worldwide release Oct. 24 by Warner Bros. Records.

The album marks an eagerly anticipated reunion between the two artists, after Wilson abandoned the now-infamous “Smile” sessions amid personal troubles, creative differences with the Beach Boys, and legal wranglings with Capitol Records in 1967.

Wilson calls his collaboration with Parks “a good formula.”

“He’s producing, and I’m singing,” says Wilson. “A certain degree of magic happens when we work together.”

The new material will debut worldwide in early September on Paul McCartney’s syndicated radio program, “Oobu Joobu.” The song “San Francisco” and the title track will premiere on the show, which is syndicated by Westwood One to more than 200 U.S. stations.

In addition to the broadcast of those two cuts, “Oobu Joobu” also will air a new interview with Wilson as well as a never-broadcast meeting of Wilson and McCartney.

“It’s a meeting of two masters of music,” says “Oobu Joobu” producer Eddy Pumer. “Brian does a rough scat of ‘Hey Jude’ at the piano with Paul. It was totally impromptu, and it was rough around the edges, but it was brilliant.”

A documentary on Wilson, “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times,” will begin airing on the Disney Channel Aug. 27. The soundtrack from the special, which contains new versions of 10 classic Wilson songs, will be released this week by Karambolage/ MCA.

Wilson says he isn’t concerned about conquering a new generation of record buyers.

“I don’t care if it doesn’t sell at all. We had fun doing it,” he says.

Wilson says that he is baffled by the attention “Smile” continues to receive.

“Maybe it is because there were a lot of drugs involved at the time,” says Wilson. “Things are so different now.”

Parks calls the “Smile” sessions a “failure.”

“We didn’t complete it, and I have not had a sense of fulfillment about it over the past 30 years,” he says. “I’ve lived with only the negative aspects of it.

“Both Brian and I have lived with the discomfort of having conceived this failure together.”

Yet, Parks says “Orange Crate Art” has given the pair the opportunity to finally see a collaboration through to completion.

Over the past three years, both musicians worked sporadically on the album between other commitments.